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HistoryIn 1937 the Glenn L. Martin Company designed a new twin-engined flying boat, the Model 162, to succeed its earlier Martin P3M and complement the PBY Catalina. It received an order for a single prototype XPBM-1 on 30 June 1937. This was followed by an initial production order for 21 PBM-1 aircraft on 28 December 1937.

To test the PBM's layout, Martin built a ⅜ scale flying model, the Martin 162A Tadpole Clipper with a crew of one and powered by a single 120 hp (89 kW) Chevrolet engine; this was flown in December 1937. The first genuine PBM, the XPBM-1, flew on 18 February 1939.

The aircraft was fitted with five gun turrets, and bomb bays that were in the engine nacelles. The gull wing was of cantilever design, and featured clean aerodynamics with an unbraced twin tail. The PBM-1 was equipped with retractable wing landing floats that were hinged outboard, with single-strut supported floats that retracted inwards to rest beneath the wing, with the floats' keels just outboard of each of the engine nacelles. The PBM-3 had fixed floats, and the fuselage was three feet longer than that of the PBM-1.

The first PBM-1s entered service with Patrol Squadron Fifty-Five (VP-55) of the United States Navy on 1 September 1940. Prior to the USA's entry into World War II, PBMs were used (together with PBYs) to carry out Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic, including operations from Iceland. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, PBMs were used on anti-submarine patrols, sinking their first German U-boat, U-158 on 30 June 1942. PBMs were responsible, wholly or in part, for sinking a total of ten U-boats during World War II.[5] PBMs were also heavily used in the Pacific War, operating from bases at Saipan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and the South West Pacific.

The United States Coast Guard acquired 27 Martin PBM-3 aircraft during the first half of 1943. In late 1944, the service acquired 41 PBM-5 models and more were delivered in the latter half of 1945. Ten were still in service in 1955, although all were gone from the active Coast Guard inventory by 1958 (when the last example was released from CGAS San Diego and returned to the U.S. Navy). These flying boats became the backbone of the long-range aerial search and rescue efforts of the Coast Guard in the early post-war years until supplanted by the P5M Marlin and the HU-16 Albatross in the mid-1950s.

PBMs continued in service with the U.S. Navy following the end of World War II, flying long patrol missions during the Korean War. It continued in front line use until replaced by its direct development, the P5M Marlin, with the last USN squadron equipped with the PBM, Patrol Squadron Fifty (VP-50), retiring them in July 1956.

The British Royal Air Force acquired 32 Mariners, but they were not used operationally, with some returned to the United States Navy. A further 12 PBM-3Rs were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force for transporting troops and cargo.

The Royal Netherlands Navy acquired 17 PBM-5A Mariners at the end of 1955 for service in Netherlands New Guinea. The PBM-5A was an amphibian with retractable landing gear. The engines were 2,100 hp (1,600 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34. After a series of crashes, the Dutch withdrew their remaining aircraft from use in December 1959.

Why the PBM Mariner?
It's my all time favorite "heavy" aircraft of WWII and sadly one that is not very well known, with sole survivor currently at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson. Well, there is another one at the bottom of Lake Washington, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay there.

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Uh oh, I see a lot of backfaces here . Also, rear part of the plane is kinda weird shape. You should use xyz arrows to extrude meshes. or click e and then x or y or z. To fix backfaces select them, press w and click flip normals. Cheers

Uh oh, I see a lot of backfaces here . Also, rear part of the plane is kinda weird shape. You should use xyz arrows to extrude meshes. or click e and then x or y or z. To fix backfaces select them, press w and click flip normals. Cheers

Click to expand...

Well, this is my first time modelling, so any tips are welcome. I currently use e then xyz, I'll try flipping the normals. As for the tail, there are some tricky shapes there. I'll try adding another loop cut around the top turret hole to make it smoother.

Also, I've updated the original post with more information, since I posted at around midnight trying not to fall asleep.

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So the Mariner will probably take some more time than expected, since there's a pretty obvious conflict between the two blueprints I got, and I can't tell which one is right. I'll try to find some better ones.

Alright, so I've been checking photos and a few profiles, and those blueprints I got were REALLY inaccurate, so I'll have to start over again. It's not really a big deal, but kinda disappointing. Just glad I noticed before I got into the really tricky parts, like the engines and stuff. Here's my PBM matched up against an accurate profile:(imported from here)

Then again, what proof do I have of its accuracy? None really, but it does look more like the real thing, especially in the cockpit area.

- - - Updated - - -

Managed to find some great reference. Certainly looks more accurate. PS I plan on using that first picture for the texture mapping.

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Staff Member

Personally it's my favorite flying boat. I just love the way it looks and works.

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Dunno, I have a bit of a soft spot for the Goose:

...but looking at your model, I'm not complaining.

Word of note, 'flip normals' is a great way to get individual faces to point in the right direction, but if you want to make an entire body (such as your aircraft's fuselage) to have correct normals, you may want to select all and use 'make normals consistent' (Ctrl+N). Where it works, it's a lot quicker.

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Word of note, 'flip normals' is a great way to get individual faces to point in the right direction, but if you want to make an entire body (such as your aircraft's fuselage) to have correct normals, you may want to select all and use 'make normals consistent' (Ctrl+N). Where it works, it's a lot quicker.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I can understand why you'd like the Goose, it's so cute and tiny, but it's just not my type of bird.

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Sorry about the lack of updates, I've just figured out how to install mods into GTA V (Offline mode, of course, don't wanna get banned) and have kinda been playing it non-stop. I'll do some work over the weekend and the next week.

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Oh man, I just hit the jackpot!(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)(imported from here)

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Thanks for the support, guys, been reading up on the flight manual to learn some more about this bird and find some schematics. And I accidentally found out why these planes are so prone to fires. From the flight manual:
"If either wing tank is overfilled, the excess fuel will flow overboard through the service tank vent line creating a serious fire hazard."

Also, I'm considering making the cockpit first this time, since it's a pretty key part and will be hard to make after everything is done.

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Does anybody know if I can make a background image that appears in 3d view instead of the 2d views? What I mean is that I wanna use this image on the background, since that way I'd be working on all 3 dimensions at once with full accuracy instead of working on one dimension than switching to the other and fixing it.(imported from here)
That came out very confusing, but I can't really explain much better than that.

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Does anybody know if I can make a background image that appears in 3d view instead of the 2d views? What I mean is that I wanna use this image on the background, since that way I'd be working on all 3 dimensions at once with full accuracy instead of working on one dimension than switching to the other and fixing it.http://legendsintheirowntime.com/Content/1944/PBM_Av_4402_sk_p143_W.png
That came out very confusing, but I can't really explain much better than that.